A guide on how to prepare peanuts for fishing. Includes an easy to follow peanut and hemp recipe
Peanuts are one of those baits that have a very mixed reaction and because people use peanuts that aren't prepared properly some fisheries have banned them. If you bait in large quantities the carp will look upon them as natural food and even though they are high in good proteins they have a vitamin C deficiency but only if you use stupid quantities.
Over the years people have always been told to use human grade peanuts as wild bird peanuts have usually been lower grade and have a risk of containing higher levels of a toxin called aflatoxin. The great thing about Haith's is that even though their peanuts are for bird feed they have their peanuts tested and only accept peanuts that have 'nil detectable aflatoxin' which is the lowest level you can get.
I always use the premium peanuts from Haith's because they are consistently bigger but they are also high in calories and exceptionally high in beneficial oils and there is not much difference in price from the standard peanuts.
Doing the basic preparation of peanuts for fishing is fairly easy as long as you don't skip the times. You soak the peanuts in a container/bucket of water (I like to add sea salt to the peanuts while they are soaking but it isn't essential) for 12-24 hours, I like to soak, them for 24 hours just to be on the safe side.
Once they have soaked for a minimum of 12 hours transfer them to a saucepan in their water and boil for 10 minutes. You can add flavourings and/or colouring if you want to but personally I think it takes away from the natural attraction of the peanut.
Transfer the peanuts and their liquid back into the container you used to soak them in and allow them to cool down, they are now ready to use.
There are a few things you can do to enhance the peanuts at this stage and one of my favourites is to create a hemp and peanut mix. The first thing I do is drain the peanuts off but keep the drained peanut water.
The hemp that I use is from Haith's as it is the most consistent good quality hemp that I've found. As I don't use huge quantities at a time I like to use the flask method of preparing it which is to fill the flask a quarter full of unprepared hemp seed, fill it up with boiling water and place the lid on. Leave to soak for 12 hours and then it's ready, drain the hemp off and keep the hemp water to one side.
To make your hemp and peanut mix I came up with the following recipe which after a lot of tinkering I feel is the perfect mix...
70% Prepared Hemp Seed
20% Blended Prepared Peanuts
10% Whole Prepared Peanuts
I like to create some special hook baits from the peanuts too and you will want the two waters that you set aside earlier get a suitable jar with an airtight lid, the measurements I will do below are for creating a 100ml of the 'special' liquid but you can easily just keep doubling it until you have the amount you need, 45ml Hemp Water, 44ml Peanut Water, 10ml Liquid Bait Preservative and 0.5g Stevia Butterscotch Sweetener. Mix it all together and set aside.
Take a 100ml airtight plastic jar (the sort that pop ups or paste come in) and put 1 tsp of fine sea salt on the bottom and half fill the jar with whole Prepared Peanuts.
Put in two tsp of Prepared Hemp seed, quarter of a tsp vitamin C phosphate 35% and another tsp of fine sea salt.
Fill the jar up to just below the neck with whole Prepared peanuts and add one final tsp of fine sea salt.
Slowly pour the prepared liquid mix into the jar until it covers everything in the jar.
Put the lid on and gently rotate the jar to mix everything together and hey presto that's the special hook baits ready. You can make variations to this by adding a couple of chopped up chilli's,a chopped up clove of garlic or use your imagination and come up with your own unique additions.
Use a size 10 hook and create a hair long enough to hold two or three peanuts hair rigged sideways for the perfect presentation. Use a pva capsule (or small pva mesh) to add the perfect amount of peanut and hemp freebie mix around your hook bait and fish for one fish at a time.
The hemp and peanuts are from Haith's and the bait preservative, stevia butterscotch sweetener and Vitamin C Phosphate are from FeedStimulants with the sea salt obviously being from the supermarket.
Written by Anthony wood
